I’m in those stats when I switched to Mint!

Steam has over 132 million monthly active users

That month on month Linux expansion is ~422,000 computers. That is a shitload of people switching in just a single month.

OSes are sticky as hell. People don’t like switching. As Linux attracts these people away from Microsoft, MS is not going to get them back. And importantly, the adoption rate is high enough that many 3rd party companies are taking notice and releasing for both.

Common Windows L

422k out of 132 million

This is WHY percentages are a thing. Because, on the surface, yeah, that is a very large number. When you look at it relative to the denominator? It is 0.3%. What is the percentage of people who bought Clair Obsura or even just some good old fashioned feet porn?

Bragging about what is basically a rounding error relative to Windows is the same “it has been the summer of Linux for the past 20 years” that mostly just leads people to write off Linux in general.

Also, what “many 3rd party companies” are you talking about? Mostly what I have noticed is an increase in “We tested on the Steam Deck” or “we won’t block Proton”. Whereas EA are still actively blocking Proton in the BF6 beta?

MS is not going to get them back

Until they want to play a multiplayer game with their friends, that doesn’t work because of Anti-Cheat. Or maybe Linux is a bit more involved than they initially realized.

Most of those that switched probably won’t go back, but I think with Linux it’s going to be more than someone might think (however it’ll still grow, especially over the coming months with Windows 10 support ending).

Microsoft is already responding to the potential shift. The upcoming ROG Xbox Ally X handheld from Microsoft and ASUS will reportedly ship with a gaming-optimized version of Windows 11 with a dedicated Xbox UI and interface that aims to streamline the experience while boosting in-game performance and overall handheld efficiency.

Given how much Microsoft wants to shove AI tools every where in Windows, I don’t think this optimisation will make much of a difference.

what “many 3rd party companies” are you talking about?

When I switched to Mint about 6 months ago, most of my programs existed on both. And my games just worked. That wasn’t the case just a few years ago.

Whereas EA are still actively blocking Proton in the BF6 beta?

I can’t imagine wanting to give EA root access to your entire system, full access to everything you do on your computer…just to play a game. I’m honestly surprised Microsoft still allows such on their platform, it’s a massive vulnerability to users, as CrowdStrike demonstrated.

422k out of 132 million

It’s all relative. When you bring the time aspect into this, it is a sharp increase compared to previous time periods.

And it’s subjectively a small number of computers and a large number of computers at the same time, depending on perspective.

There’s no point in arguing over these stats.

most of my programs existed on both

Good on you. Plenty of people have many problems because a lot of industry standard tools (e.g. fusion 360 for CAD) don’t exist on Linux and actively break under Wine/Proton

And my games just worked

And great (and same). But most of that is just not actively breaking Proton. Which is the Wine team plus Valve.

As for BF6: the point is that one of THE biggest third party publishers out there has spent the past year or so actively blocking Proton in almost all of their games. And for their new flagship title that they want to be the biggest game ever (ha!), they are already actively blocking Proton again.

Which goes against the “many 3rd party companies are taking notice and releasing for both”. Which was already not even a thing since the vast majority of those aren’t doing linux binaries (tried that 10 and 20 and 30 years ago…) and are just not actively breaking Proton.

Switched to linux (popos - so far so good) this month because fuck microsoft. yeah, some things aren’t perfect or require extra steps (modding, usually) but fuck microsoft. Fuck their AI shit, fuck their “recall” spyware, fuck their CEO that babbles about AI while laying off thousands of workers.

Do you not understand that “many” has a different meaning than “all”? Being able to point to one company that is actively blocking Proton doesn’t prove a single thing.

MS optimization = maximize revenue streams = more ads = more spyware

I don’t believe a thing MS says is ever meant to improve the customer experience.

Said company being one of the biggest in gaming. Hoyoverse also tend to be varying levels of sketchy towards Proton (I think the current “meta” is to run the android version of Genshin Impact in an emulator?)

Also, you still haven’t really identified what major 3rd parties are considering Linux a first class citizen versus just not actively blocking Proton and MAYBE testing against one specific SKU (Steam Deck).

Exactly… People love talking optimization and efficiency without realizing that they are being fucked over lol

They are optimizing at your expense

It’ll be a slow grind. I view. Linux today similar to Macs in like 2003. Low single digit market share but increasing adoption. What doesn’t match is the lack of a huge company pushing out flagship advertised laptops/desktops with them that tie in to a very popular device like iPods. But today there’s so many more computers being used that a low single digit market share today is probably way more people than Macs back in 2003. And Linux gaming today is better than gaming on MacOS has ever been. Today MacOS is like 15%

Switched rest of the house to Linux due to win10 bullshit. Not going pretend like this is something that everyone can do but if you can do it for yourself, it takes only on Linux zealot per household

I’m a long-time Linux hacker and I’m currently running Pop! OS on my laptop and dev box. It’s the best distro I’ve found yet that Just Works (but naturally still allows for all the customization I might want).

Honestly, I kinda suspect the tariffs are speeding this up. I recently upgraded my desktop due to the suspicion that prices are gonna go bonkers shortly and since I was basically rebuilding it anyway, I went ahead and switched my last windows PC to Linux. Been a lot smoother than I had suspected, highly recommended.

I’ve also run mint and ubuntu, but this was very smooth.

The only problem so far are I get a crackling in my headphones in at least one game (guild wars 2), and I’m not sure how to diagnose that. One of the related problems of windows being so dominant is the internet is full of SEO slop for windows problems

Given the popularity of the Steam Deck, the Xbox handheld would have to come free with the purchase of any Xbox exclusive game to stand a chance in that sphere, I think. The fact that it’s Win11 immediately turns me off and I say this as someone who still uses Windows.